Cricketing legend Shane Warne has been drawn into Australia's efforts to strengthen ties with India following a spate of attacks on Indian students.

Diplomatic tension between the countries has mounted following the unsolved murder of 21-year-old Punjab man Nitin Garg in Melbourne earlier this month and officials hope Warne's spin offensive can help improve relations.

"It might be a friendly cricket game. It might be that he does some work for us in India, in terms of just stating the case about what a great place Victoria is, what a great place Australia is," Victorian Premier John Brumby said Monday.

"He is highly regarded, he is much loved in India and he has got a great sense of the Australian psyche, so I think these two things can come together and we'll see what we can make out of it to strengthen that Australia-India relationship."

The announcement came as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's nephew was fined and removed from the grounds of the Australian Open tennis for staging a peaceful protest against racism wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit.

Police escorted Van Thanh Rudd, son of the Prime Minister's brother Malcolm, from outside the Melbourne Park stadium for allegedly breaching the peace with his costume and signs which read "No Racist Attacks on Indians".

"The Australian government has to act to save innocent Indians and Tamils," Rudd told reporters as he was being bundled into a police car.

The outspoken left-wing artist said Indians in Australia were 2.5 times more likely to be attacked than other ethnic groups and it was time for the government to condemn the violence as racist.

The prime minister's office declined to comment, saying it was "a matter for the people involved".

Australian police have acknowledged that crimes against Indians have been rising in Victoria state over the past 18 months but say the majority are motivated by opportunistic theft rather than racial prejudice.

Two more Indian students were assaulted in Melbourne late Monday, with one taken to hospital with cuts to his ear.

Police said they have charged five people over the incident in which the victims, aged 18 and 22, were approached by a group of about 10 and pushed or punched to the ground.

"There were allegations racial comments were made," said Leading Senior Constable Kendra Jackson of the latest assault.

New Delhi has expressed "absolute displeasure and concern" over the violence, which has prompted a strong reaction in the Indian press, with one newspaper likening Australian police to the Ku Klux Klan.